Heat leaves thousands without power in southern California

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Southern California's heat wave has left tens of thousands of people without electricity.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Southern California's heat wave has left tens of thousands of people without electricity.

Southern California Edison says more than 27,000 of its customers were without power Tuesday morning, mainly in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Most have been blacked out for eight to 16 hours.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reports another 15,000 customers are without power in the city of Los Angeles.

Edison spokeswoman Vanessa McGrady says the heat has driven folks to use their air conditioners around the clock. She says transformers that usually cool down overnight are getting a workout and are blowing or burning out.

DWP spokeswoman Gale Harris says blown transformers appear to have caused most of the city outages and crews are working quickly to replace them.